Archive for Somatic Exercises
7 Brand New Somatics Exercises Videos
Posted by: | Comments7 – 7 minute Somatics Exercises Videos are here
In these hectic and busy holiday times, we may accumulate tension and stress in our muscles. Ouch!
Why not let it all go in 7 minutes or less with somatics exercises?
Somatics exercises are usually the reverse of most approaches
While many exercises are geared towards strengthening, these easy, simple movements target the brain’s cortex so it can lower muscular tension levels.
With lower muscular tension levels, our muscles can remain more relaxed.
When our muscles are relaxed, we’re no longer fighting our self. Movement becomes easy. Stress just flies off of us quickly.
Somatics exercises are so too simple
In 7 minutes or less, our brain can rewire our nervous system so our muscles lose the tension we accumulate in our busy, hectic lives. This is why I’ve just created 7 somatics exercises videos with each one around 7 minutes long.
Watch and follow along with easy, simple movements that change the brain which change how our muscles get back to comfort.
With a little practice, we can be more mobile, have natural flexibility and if pain comes up, we can learn to lose that too, effortlessly with somatics exercises.
Knee Problems
Posted by: | CommentsKnee problems are sometimes not always where we think.
We often think of knee problems happening, well obviously at the knee, yet in some cases, where the pain is, the problem ain’t.
The knee is designed primarily to bend like a hinge. It can twist a little too.
The muscles below and above the knee impinge upon it when we compensate or substitute with other muscles for instance, when we hobble around after an injury.
The muscles below the knee can be overly contracted or not functioning as well as they could be. Tight calves or restrictions in the front of the lower leg may not only rob us of energy, we may have to work that much more in order to walk and our knee problems can compound.
Knee Problems at the waist?
Often times, knee problems can occur much higher in our body than we think. You can do all the knee bends you want or turn your foot in or out to help with torsion issues.
Yet other parts of ourself can cause us to bear our weight differently. In times of injury, we can compensate by holding our side tight or cringing to the side using our waist muscles.
If left unchecked, contracted waist muscles can have some bearing on the function of the knee and the knee problems persist.
Free the waist, free the knee problems
The practice of somatics exercises, which is usually quite the opposite of other approaches, uses the brain to release contracted areas and improves the function of the muscles so we move more effortlessly and easily.
In this week’s online somatics class, you can learn how to release some muscles below the knee as well as those at the waist.
Rather than doing standing exercises or using weights, we’ll focus on different relationships with gravity and noticing how our entire body moves, not just the knee.
Many knee problems can be solved by addressing our body as a whole moving unit instead of just the part where we experience our pains and discomforts.
Exercises for face muscles and more
Posted by: | CommentsLet’s Face It. Can exercises for face muscles help you move easier?
A looser jaw helps if you’re a runner and exercises for face muscles may be something you haven’t considered.
Did you know that in some countries they actually target future runners by seeing who has the loosest jaw? If they only had some exercises for face muscles, maybe there would be a surge in competitors or at least, we could have freer jaws.
Somatics exercises, a different set of exercises for face muscles
Somatics exercises are usually the reverse of most approaches since we work with changing the brain’s output to the muscles.
By decreasing high levels of muscular tension, these special exercises for the face muscles work with 1/3 of the brain’s sensory-motor cortex.
Using the brain to change how muscles respond is naturally what we did as children through the process of what is known as a pandiculation.
Exercises for face muscles and then some more…
In this week’s online class, you also learn how to have a more mobile spine to go along with those exercises for face muscles.
Besides, you’ll learn 2 simple movements which will also help you sit more comfortably crossed-legged or in the lotus posture.
So please join us on Friday and find out if somatics exercises for face muscles can set you free.
Improve Eyesight, Loosen the Neck
Posted by: | CommentsWhat can we do to improve eyesight, lessen jaw pain, and improve the neck’s ability to move comfortably even though we may be sitting at a computer for long periods of time.
Improve eyesight… free up the neck.
There are any number of eye exercises, diet considerations and things you can do for the eyes. Sometimes getting up and drinking some water is enough to take out the strain.
Sitting at a computer for longer periods of time is not a way to improve eyesight since our range of vision and motion is compromised into a smaller space. Unless of course, you are working on building shorter, more contracted eye muscles.
Simple neck mobilizations and moving the eyes just a little differently are enough to ward off hours of limited motion.
Improve eyesight in just a few minutes
Relaxing the tension from hours of using our eyes in a small space or holding our neck a certain way, takes just a few minutes. Yet how many of us are really going to spend the necessary few minutes to take care of it.
Don’t we usually wait until the jaw pain or neck immobility becomes too great before we act. Pain is a great teacher, but why wait for our body to get locked up and not be able to lessen the accumulated tension and muscular stress.
Just a few minutes of careful self awareness combined with releasing the tension as naturally as any animal will do, allows us to keep on doing the things we human animals think we need or want to do.
Healthy animals do things like yawn. Well they contract their jaw muscles so it looks like a yawn. Go ahead, give yourself a big yawn and pay attention to all the muscles in your neck your tightening up.
Somatics exercises improve eyesight
The way to let go of tension and improve eyesight is to do what animals do. Thank goodness we’ve systematized what animals do as somatics exercises.
We’ve borrowed the very same process which is done in movement, not a static hold and release for a certain period of time.
With periodic self-adjustments and self-corrections, our neck will be freer, our jaw will be looser and we can improve eyesight simply.
Why hold all the tension in place when we can consciously learn to let it go with a little simple practice of awareness and easy movement patterns.
If you want to learn more, please join me in this Friday’s somatics exercise class to improve eyesight, free the neck and ease a tight jaw.
Why does my calf hurt so much when I stretch it after waking up?
Posted by: | CommentsEver wake up in the middle of the night and stretch your leg yet afterwards the calf will throb and ache like crazy.
Why does this happen and is the only way to prevent it from happening is to stop stretching when I wake up?
You may be bumping into what is known as the stretch reflex. It’s a set point limit that by stretching gets violated so the muscles naturally re-contract and tighten afterwards.
When people spaz out, get a muscle cramp, they “push” past the limit not knowing how to change the signal.
Listening to our body provides a way out. In this case, its counter-intuitive. When we typically stretch, which is now known to be bad for us (though most people haven’t heard of it), the muscles re-tighten on account of the stretch reflex.
So what to do.
Listen to the body and actually pay attention to the muscles being contracted… so if you think you are stretching… think again and feel what in yourself is actually contracting… you might even feel how your back contracts as you “stretch” your leg.
By paying attention to what contracts, all you have to do is release slowly and then rest, then repeat with less effort so the muscles can calm down.
Once your muscles are relaxed enough, you can tighten the beejesuz out of them and you won’t get discomfort. If you do, repeat the process using less and less effort.
Now, when you release the muscles, pay attention to how well you can… sometimes they’ll fidget and jerk… that’s ok, your brain is now in reset mode.
BTW – this is how healthy animals reset their muscles… they feel what they are contracting and then they release themselves so the brain can bathe the muscles in relaxation chemicals – no wonder why Fido’s muscles are mostly relaxed… so you see, we thought it was stretching. It isn’t.
Merely pay attention to what you are contracting and follow it with a s-l-o-w release… afterwards you can wag your tail once again.
Contracting and releasing in this specific manner is what somatics exercises are all about. When you get rudely awaken at night… you’ll know how to take care of a painful calf.
Somatics exercises are designed to release painful signals like muscle cramps and spasms so you can rest easy.
Ending your pain. High Tech meets Low Tech.
Posted by: | CommentsLearning to play with technology was introduced to me just a few years ago when my kids thought it was weird I didn’t have an ipod… little did I know I would soon have a website, and even a twitter account – for reasons still a mystery.
Whether you’ve been experiencing back pain, hip pain, neck pain, etc… you can take care of it at home.
For some time, I’ve been working with fabulous people all over the world offering private online somatics one on one sessions… all in the comfort of home.
This compliments the ongoing online classes which are also offered.
From my experience providing online webinars where you watch a presentation and follow it with some live somatics movements… combining the low techiness of somatics with a computer has been a revelation.
In fact, doctors are now using this approach too.
Cisco has been teaming up with them. They’ve discovered this is a highly effective approach which works well for many people.
All you need to do is answer an email and your computer does the rest, otherwise we can use the Free Google Video interface, Skype and if you happen to have a mac, we can use Facetime.
For those of you on the go, we’ve even done it over an iphone too while away from home.
Your initial session includes a health background intake.
Followed by:
• A posture assessment
• Movement sequences specifically tailored to your needs and concerns
• And you’ll receive an audio recording of the easy movements you did, so you’ll know exactly what to do
• + You’ll have access to a private members only area with videos and written files to further enhance your progress.
Press here to schedule a private video session.
Stretching… more harm than good
Posted by: | Comments
“Stretching is Out…
Science now shows that stretching is
• bad for us
• a waste of time
•reduces strength
Don’t try to increase your range of motion
• can cause architectural damage
• straining muscle stays weakened
So what to do instead?
Move Like an Animal
The $5 word you probably haven’t heard of… pandiculation… aka Somatics Exercises.
Join us Saturday/Sunday, February 26/27 at 10am, 1pm, 4pm at the Starfire Complex during the Washington State Women’s Soccer Association Winter Chill Tournament.
You’ll find out what all healthy animals and even babies know.
Somatics is a systematized approach using the pandicular process that animals naturally use to reset their muscles for length, strength, mobility, agility and vitality.
By using your brain, the big muscle, you can reset all the rest of the muscles with chemicals of relaxation so the muscles are ready to be used and more functional .
Healthy vertebrate animals and babies use this process… we human adult animals are just catching on. It’s so easy any cat or dog can do it.
You’ll never, ever… have to stretch again. Somatics Exercises are so too simple.
Winter Chill Soccer Tournament
Posted by: | CommentsA kick in the grass (turf) doesn’t have to be a kick in the $ss or tight hamstrings or pulled muscles…
Somatics is coming to the…
2011 Winter Chill Soccer Tournament at the Starfire Soccer Complex in Tukwila, WA on February 26th-27th.
This 7 vs 7 event held by the Washington State Womens Soccer Association will have women competing in the open, over 30 and over 40 categories.
For those of you attending, you can discover an entirely new way to get those muscles ready to play before, after and in between your games.
Somatics was recently seen and experienced at the U.S. Veterans Cup in Boston.
Please keep the icy hot and tiger balm at home… you won’t need it after you learn how to move like an animal again.
Animals naturally lengthen their muscles by pandiculating. Say what?
They are not stretching contrary to popular belief. There doing a whole ‘nother thing which you’ll get to experience at the tournament.
If you’re a player, coach, or physical trainer, come find out why you never need to stretch. That’s right, in fact it’s bad for you… according to the research.
When you get your muscles ready in the ways animals do… you just might move like a healthy animal again and stop limping your way back to the car when the games are done.
Look for the guy wearing the funny shoes.. 
We’ll meet at 10am, 1pm and 4pm on Saturday and Sunday.
We’ll probably find a comfortable place to unwind indoors at the complex.
If you’re team wants its own session, just let the guy with the funny shoes know.
Get ready to get those hamstrings, hip flexors, quads, and inner leg muscles looser, more relaxed and in your control so you can keep on playing and playing…
or at least make it to the end of the day… and play the next if you’re one of the lucky ones.
Somatics Exercise Video
Posted by: | CommentsWatch Thomas Hanna who created Hanna Somatic Education®.
Somatics Exercises are being taught by Hanna Somatic Educators® to primarily relieve physical pain in our back, neck, head, shoulders, hip, legs, feet, arms and hands.
Getting out of physical pain is as easy as 1-2-3
Posted by: | Comments3 Simple Steps is all it takes so you can do what you want again.
The New Gravity Werks Program is now available…
Don’t Live 2011 in Physical Pain. You can live Pain Free – the way nature intended.
